FCC to investigate ban on unlocking cell phones

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has raised concerns about the Librarian of Congress's controversial decision to stop allowing consumers to unlock their own cell phones in order to take them to competing carriers. In a Wednesday interview with Techcrunch, Julius Genachowski said that the "ban raises competition concerns; it raises innovation concerns."

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives the Librarian of Congress the power to grant exemptions to its "anti-circumvention" provisions. In its latest round of rulemaking, the Librarian cancelled an exemption for cell phone unlocking that had been in effect for the previous six years. As a result, unlocking a cell phone purchased after January 26 in order to move it to another wireless carrier could lead to civil and perhaps even criminal penalties.

The change sparked an online backlash. Last week, a petition on the White House website attracted the 100,000 signatures required for an official White House response. Now, according to Techcrunch, the FCC will investigate the change.

While the FCC can bring greater visibility to the issue, it's not clear if the agency has any authority to fix the problem. Congress gave the power to grant exemptions to the Librarian of Congress, and the process for granting those exemptions only occurs once every three years.

But according to Techcrunch, Genachowski will be looking for ways to reverse the decision. "It’s something that we will look at at the FCC to see if we can and should enable consumers to use unlocked phones," he said.

Derek Khanna, an online activist and former Republican staffer who has helped publicize the issue, called Genachowski's pledge a "terrific development." According to Khanna, the FCC "should be investigating this. The decision is indefensible."

He pointed out that the Competitive Carriers Association, which represents Sprint, T-Mobile, and dozens of smaller wireless carriers, has called for the ban on cell phone unlocking to be repealed.

Timothy B. Lee / Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times.